This weekend, I finished reading the book "The Selfish Gene" by Richard Dawkins. It was very impressive to think about the complexity and similarities between species, and how we inherit shapes and functions from one generation to the next. Dawkins argues that similar to the alphabet of life, our human brains can transmit words and ideas coded in an alphabet of "memes", replicators on an abstract level in our brains that are competing for communication channels (the internet is an incredible rich meme-pool, so is the television, a newspaper and a patent office).
All in all, I am thinking that ideas share some abstract features with computer programs, that use the roles of functions and expressions for coding change. At least, good ideas often (always ?) address some useful changes. And indeed, I would agree with John Maeda, that to develop those meme programs inside one owns mind, it is needed to look at these processes and programs and try to ban the critics and imprimers from guiding you. (There is a saying from Marvin Minsky: "Never listen to your critics. Don't even ignore them.")
